402 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 82. 



places in wLicli the misprint occurred ; and (4.) 

 similar in appearance to the word " prenzie." 

 "Princely" does not agree with the sense or spirit 

 of the particular passage ; for it is extremely im- 

 probable that Claudio, when confined under sen- 

 tence of death for an absurd and insufficient cause, 

 would use a term of mere compliment to the man 

 by whom he had been doomed. "Precise" and 

 " priestly " are both far better than "princely;" 

 but "precise" is wholly unsuited to ihe metre in 

 both places, and " priestly " points too much to 

 a special character to be appropriate to Augelo's 

 office and position. It may also be remarked, that 

 both " princely" and "priestly" differ from the 

 number and form of the letters contained in 

 " prenzie." 



The word which I venture to suggest is "Pen- 

 sive," a word particularly applicable to a person 

 of saintly habits, and which is so applied by Milton 

 in " II Penseroso : " 



" Come, pensive nuu, devout and pure. 

 Sober, stedfast, and demure." 



The word "pensive" is stated by Dr. Johnson 

 to mean " sorrowfully thoughtful, sorrowfully 

 serious," or melancholy ; and that such epithets 

 are appropriate to the reputed character of Angelo 

 will be seen from the followinsr extracts : 



" I implore her, in my service, that she make friends 

 To the strict deputy." Claudio, Act I. Sc. :3. 



" I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo, 

 A man of stricture, and firm abstinence." 



Duke, Act I. Se. 4. 

 " Lord Angelo is precise ; 

 Stands at a guard with envy ; scarce confesses 

 That his blood flows, or tliat his ai^petite 

 Is more to bread than S:tone." 



Duke, Act L Sc. 4. 

 " A man, whose blood 

 Is very snow-broth ; one who never feels 

 The wanton stings and motions of the sense. 

 But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge 

 "With profits of the mind, study and fast." 



Lucio, Act I. Sc. 5. 

 See also Angelo's portraiture of himself in the 

 soliloquy at the commencement of Act 11. Sc. 4. : 



" My gravity, 

 Wherein (let no man hear me) I take pride, 

 Could I, with boot, change for an idle plume 

 Which the air beats for vain," 



And, lastly, the passage immediately under 

 consideration : 



" This outward-sainted deputy. 

 Whose settled visage and deliberate word, 

 Nips youth i' the head, and follies doth emmew." 

 Isabella, Act IIL Sc. 1. 



Thus much as to the propriety of the word 

 " pensive," in relation to the reputed character of 

 Angelo. 



The next question is, whether the word " pen- 



sive" is an appropriate epithet to the word 

 " guards." If Messrs. Knight and Collier are 

 correct in construing " guards" to mean the 

 " trinnnings or border of a robe," this question 

 must be answered in the negative. But it appears 

 to me that they are in error, and that the true 

 meaning of the word " guards," in this particular 

 passage, is "outward appearances," as suggested 

 by Monck JMason ; and, consequently, that the 

 expression " pensive guards " means a grave or 

 sanctified countenanc« or demeanour — " the set- 

 tled visage and deliberate word" which "nips 

 youth i' the head, and follies doth emmew." 



It requires no argument to establish that the 

 word "pensive"" is suitable to the metre in both 

 places in which the misprint occurred; and it is 

 equally clear that "prenzie" and "pensive" in 

 manuscript are so similar, both in the number, 

 form, and character of the letters, that the one 

 might easily be printed for the other. The two 

 words also have a certain resemblance, in point of 

 sound; and if the word "pensive" be not very 

 distinctly pronounced, the mistake might be made 

 by a scribe writing from dictation. 



Referring to Mrs. Cowden Clarke's admirable 

 concordance of Shakspeare, it appears that the 

 word " pensive " is used by Shakspeare in the text 

 of his plays twice ; namely, in Borneo and Juliet, 

 Act IV. Sc. I., where Friar Laurence addresses 

 Juliet thus : 



" My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now." 

 and again, in the Third Part oi Henry VI., Act IV. 

 Sc. 1., where Clarence is thus addressed by King 

 Edward upon the subject of his marriage with the 

 Lady Grey : 



" Now, brother Clarence, how like you our choice. 

 That you stand pensive, as half mal-content ? " 

 I also find that, according to the stage directions 

 (both ancient and modern) of Act II. Sc. 2. of 

 Henry VIII. (see Collier's Shakspeare, vol. v. 

 p. 534., note), the king is described to be found 

 "reading pensively," at a moment when he is 

 meditating his divorce from Katharine of Arragon, 

 not " because the marriage of his brother's wife 

 had crept too near his conscience," but " because 

 his conscience had crept too near another lady." 



I might extend the argument by further ob- 

 servations upon the reference last cited, but not 

 without risk of losing all chance of a place in 

 " Notes and Quehies." 



Query, Whether pensive was ever written or 

 printed penrive in Shakspeare's time ? If so, that 

 word would bear a still closer resemblance to 

 " prenzie." Leges. 



RUrMING EATIN VERSION OF THE SONG ON ROBIN 

 GOODFELLOW. 



In the same MS. from which I extracted Braith- 

 wait's Latin Drinking Song, the following version 



